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A new waste cover system at the Kewaunee County landfill, is projected to save time, cell airspace and money for the county. The Enviro Cover System began running two weeks ago under a one-year Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) trial.

Enviro Cover entails the use of a thin, biodegradable film, which is deployed over the waste in the landfill each day. The DNR requires landfill operators to cover new waste each day with at least 4 to 6 inches of material, which can come in the form of sand, paper fiber, shredder fluff, coal ash or paper mill sludge.

Because the county was not able to get enough of these materials in the past three months, Landfill Facilities Manager Mike Paral started looking for new opportunities. Currently in Phase 2 of the landfill plan, saving space for waste is the most important factor to manage costs.

Paral had introduced the idea of the system a few years back to the county Highway and Landfill Committee, but at the time the availability of daily cover was abundant, so it was not looked at until now.

The deployer of the film cost about $7,800 and one 16-foot long roll of film is about $2,200. Each roll covers between 90,000 and 120,000 square feet, depending on the thickness of the film. The roll and deployer can be attached to one of the landfill's front-end loaders, which unrolls the film over waste. A small amount of daily cover is also distributed to hold down the film.

"It's better cover because it is solid cover," Paral said. "The daily cover would not always provide the best coverage based on how it would lay."

Cost savings takes the form of saving airspace on the hill. The film does not take up as much space as more traditional cover materials, leaving more room for the landfill to accept the everyday waste that is deposited for a fee.

"We estimated that the film cover would cost us about $35,000 a year, and 6 inches of daily cover every day would cost about $300,000 in airspace," Paral said. "Daily cover made up one-third of our total volume each year, which is huge."

Paral explained that landfills are built with a volume of airspace to fill, and that airspace has a cost.

"When using daily cover, you are not covering that cost, so money is lost," Paral said. "16,750 tons of daily cover was used last year, approximately $251,475 is what it cost us in lost revenue."

Highway and Landfill Committee Chairman Larry Kirchman said that with the new system, the landfill's current phase could be extended by up to six years.

Waste comes from Kewaunee, Brown, Door and Manitowoc counties, and about half comes from out-of-county sources. Kirchman said Kewaunee County is in competition with neighboring landfills to keep haulers coming to the hill, so tipping fees have to stay competitive.

"We have to be able to meet our operating costs, and this system is going to allow us to tip more," Kirchman said.

Another improvement with the Enviro Cover System is that the process of spreading 4 to 6 inches daily cover has been reduced from one hour of work to half an hour.

The DNR have not yet been out to see the system at work in Kewaunee, but based on their research of the project, they approved the use of it. In one year's time, Paral and DNR officials will review how the project went.

"The DNR is very strict on having waste covered each night," Kirchman said. "Problems can occur with the trash being blown around, odor development and animals getting into the garbage."

A driving force in looking into extending the life of the landfill and subsequent purchase of the Enviro Cover System is directly related to Phase 3 of the landfill plan, which could keep the site open for another 30 years. Moving through the documentation to make this phase happen can take up to six years.

Phase 3 is estimated to cost $4-5 million dollars to complete. Paral estimated that if the county has 28,000 residents, children included, it would cost about $48 each to extend the landfill for another 30 years, which would be cheaper than paying for garbage to be hauled to Brown County.

"It is my belief that if we take the landfill away, it will be one more thing we cannot offer new business and put a halt on our county's growth," Paral said. "The committee is working hard to make this happen, but we are going to work together as a community to get it done."

Both Kirchman and Paral stated that Kewaunee County is the first landfill in the state to utilize the Enviro Cover system, and Paral has been talking with other facility managers in the area about it.

"If there is something that will save the landfill, this is the strongest leg forward that we have," Paral said.